


The Racoon

by Chexie



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24030994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chexie/pseuds/Chexie
Summary: It was just classic Pavlovian Conditioning.If you feed something regularly, it will keep coming.
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 49





	The Racoon

It just started when you walked into the garden on a whim. You considered it your happy place, viewing flowers that had just bloomed under the watch of the Great Tree Moon. Your mother would usually scold you for coming back into the house covered in dirt, but you never particularly minded. 

Still, it was the odd rustling behind the cobblestone fence that brought your attention to him. At first, you were excited. Such rustling usually meant a cute little animal was outside. You’d always liked watching them, perhaps offering them a small piece of food hastily dug out from the vegetable bed. However, to your surprise, there wasn’t any such animal lingering beyond the wall. Rather, you found a young boy, no older than yourself, fiddling with the rusted lock to the iron gate but a few feet away. Without thinking, you dropped from the top of the wall, rushing to the gate to see the child on the other side, looking as surprised as a freshly wounded deer. 

“I… I, er, well… that is…” His voice was soft, though panic laced his words. Slipping your hands through the bars, you gripped onto the boy’s wrist, keeping him where he was. “Let go!” His words came out in a harsh whisper. “I can’t get caught here!” Still, you kept one hand on him, the other unlocking the large iron gate. As it opened up, understandably, he seemed rather confused. After all, he was just trying to break into your home, yet you let him in with no qualms.

You were quick on your feet as you dragged him off to a corner of the garden where no one would see him, in a corner of the stone fence that had been covered by bushes until the Red Wolf Moon began peeking its way around. You considered it a hiding place for all your small trinkets and treasures you’d found outside your home, a few rather obvious mounds of dirt around the bushes bases giving tell to that.

“I-”

“Shhh!” You had finally spoken up to him, rather firm with what you wanted him to do. “Could you tell me what you need? Be honest, please.” The boy lightly gnawed at the inside of his cheek. Would telling you he was a petty thief trying to help out his siblings really cut it? Still, seeing your unwavering gaze piece into him, he eventually gave. Without telling you too much, he did tell you everything you would’ve needed to know. 

“I’m sorry to have been an inconvenience.” He looked around the small corner for a piece of cobble to get footing on. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll just be-”

“Now, hold on!” Goodness, weren’t you the one for interruptions? “Why didn’t you tell me all of that sooner?” You could see skepticism in his soft mint eyes, but you reassured him. “Please, just remain here for but a couple moments.” Quick as you came, you ran off into the rather large house you called home. While you weren’t exactly noble, per se, your family was a bit better off than most commoners could claim to be.

Looking back on it, you weren’t sure why you decided to aid him in the first place. Perhaps you pitted him, though at the time you had no real clues as to whether or not he had been lying to you. Maybe the cruel reality was you had so desperately been wanting someone your own age to be around you called a boy trying to rob you good enough to be a friend….

Who really knew?

You returned, setting down one of your wicker baskets in front of him. Any skepticism remaining melted away into awe as he raised the small cloth covering it, revealing a couple of your father’s old waterskins, a loaf of fresh bread, a few pieces of fruit and vegetables right from the garden, a couple coins, and one of your mother’s old rings she expressed disinterest in wearing again.

“I can’t possibly accept this…” His voice was just an inch louder than a whisper as he dropped the white cloth. You picked up the basket again, pushing the handle into his hands.

“Please do, I insist.” He thought about it for a good long while, before settling his fingers around the basket’s handle. “If you ever find yourself in another tight spot, I implore that you come to me again, understand?” You told him as you escorted him back to the gate. 

“I see… Well, if you insist.” For once, you saw him smile. And you had to admit, he looked rather cute like that. “Thank you again. I suppose this means I’m in your debt?” You shook your head at the assumption, a small giggle upon your lips.

“Oh, no, no, think nothing of it. Just take care of yourself, ah...” 

“Ashe. Call me Ashe.”

The two of you exchanged one last smile before he dashed out of the garden, and you locked the gate behind him.

It was only at dinner when your mother had scolded you.

“Did you take the bread I made this morning?” You nodded. She rested her hands on her hips, expression that of exhaustion. “Were you using it to feed birds and the like in the garden again?” You paused for a moment, before nodding again. She let out a sigh. “Dear, you can’t go feeding wild animals. They’ll just keep coming back and we won’t be able to get rid of them.”

In a way, you hoped she was right.

It was another whole week before you saw him again. Then a week after that, then a week after that and so on. 

Classic Pavlovian conditioning.

It became routine, so much so that you had always prepped a basket for him the day he was supposed to show up, taking your seat in the garden. The two of you had occasionally spent time chatting in the garden. You didn’t always have anything to talk about, simply enjoying the company, but you did manage to learn a bit about him. Things like how his siblings had been doing or how his life used to be. It was fascinating to say the least. You yourself never really dove into many interesting topics of conversation, often drawing back to your quiet complaints about how you’d been overhearing your mother speak of trying to marry you off to a noble family, just to get one peg higher in Faerghus’ ladder.

While he knew he couldn’t relate to the situation, you still had his sympathies. 

It was a day late under the Red Wolf Moon, a bitter chill ran down your spine as the frost began to set in for the year. You sat at your bench for hours before hot tears began pricking at the edges of your eyes. Did he forget? Maybe his situation improved. That would be nice. Your mind kept wandering, even to more sour thoughts. What if he went to the wrong person at the wrong time? You felt like vomiting at the thought of the bloodspill. 

It took a whole week of waiting before you realized he wouldn’t show up. In a way, it depressed you. In all honesty, you considered it the highlight of your week, but there went that thought. 

The first few days of the Ethereal Moon crept in before you knew it. Thick blankets of snow sheeted across the land as far as your eye could see. You’d given up on ever seeing Ashe again. Over a month, but nothing. At least your mother seemed happy that scraps of food stopped disappearing from the pantry. You’d decided you’d try to be optimistic about it. As far as you were concerned, something happened, something good happened. He was perfectly fine. Healthy life, even. His siblings were fine, too. 

Thinking about it like that, it made your stomach turn less.


End file.
